A source familiar with Halo and Halo development, BathrobeCast on Twitter, shared new information on the "state of 343 Industries." In a brief write-up on Twitter, BathrobeCast says that not only has 343 Industries been hugely downsized but that they are now mostly overseeing development done by outside studios.
In short, BathrobeCast says that there are now fewer than 280 employees at 343 Industries. This figure comes from downsizing at the Microsoft owned studio in both 2023 and 2024. Prior to this, 343 Industries reportedly employed nearly 500 employees. A couple of the harder hit areas of 343 Industries came with the communications and marketing teams, which were reportedly cut entirely at the studio.
Additionally, Microsoft is relying more on outsourcing for upcoming Halo projects as they are no longer confident in 343's internal development team. This means that the next Halo projects, of which there are reportedly two in development, will mostly be handled by outside studios. 343 Industries will work on concept and pre-production phases, conduct checks for lore accuracy, and supervise these outsourced studios. A bulk of the actual production and development will be handled by these outsource studios. It's said that only about 30% of 343's current staff are working on development while the remaining 70% consists of project managers, producers, and other non-development roles.
As far as new Halo projects are concerned, BathrobeCast says that there are two titles coming. One is reportedly a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved and the other is Halo 7. Both are in the pre-production phase with the CE remake possibly dropping in 2026 at the earliest. Halo 7 is rumored to include a multiplayer mode with a much higher player count than anything before in the franchise.
Finally, BathrobeCat says that Halo Infinite made a good deal of money for Microsoft, but still failed to meet internal targets. Infinite is now on "life support" with the remaining support being for the Forge mode only.
While all of this should be considered a rumor, BathrobeCast says that they talked to over a dozen current and former employees of 343 Industries before passing along this information.
